Alajuela, the lion's cave!

There are no real lions in Alajuela, but this is home of one of the most popular soccer teams in Costa Rica, and its mascot is a lion. Just thought the title would be catchy.

I visited Alajuela on Tuesday, but aside from that, didn't do much traveling these days. Downtown Alajuela is almost as busy and chaotic as San Jose, in contrast to the slow pace that is seen in Heredia. Still, just like in Heredia, some towns are very nice and offer a sample of typical Costa Rican life.

Naranjo, Sarchi and Grecia are charming towns where one can find a good place to relax and have a good cup of coffee at the park and chat with the locals about anything. They are not far from one another, and the bus service is very reliable and cheap. I visited the town plazas and spent some time walking around. There is much more to see going further from the center, but this time I only posted some pictures of the plaza and the churches.

Sarchi

Sarchi is the most famous craft center in Costa Rica and is widely known for its furniture factories and traditional ox-carts. In fact, the town claims to feature the world's largest ox-cart sitting in the Parque Central, which also made it to the Guinness Book of World Records. For pictures, you can visit the Fabrica de Carretas Eloy Alfaro.

Grecia

Grecia is known for two things: a distinction as being one of the cleanest towns in Central America and its church, which in the exterior has a dark red color metal sheet covering the entire building. The Catedral de la Mercedes was built in the 1890's with materials from Belgium and designed with a Gothic style. Closer to the mountains there are many organic farms harvesting coffee, sugar cane and pine apple - very tasty!!! I also visited the World of Snakes serpentarium and the Cataratas Los Chorros (waterfall), but sadly my camera run out of battery, so I am gonna have to go again some other time and take at least one picture of each place.

Zarcero

Another interesting town closer to Naranjo is Zarcero, known for its topiary garden, which is maintained by Evangelisto Blanco since the 60's. He has been offered to work in the US to do his art, but instead has preferred to stay and live here. I will post my pictures later. For now, visit Wikipedia-Zarcero.



I posted just a few pictures today, but will try to post more later in the week.

This Monday is the "Clasico", a soccer match between Alajuela (La Liga) and Saprissa (my team). Last Wednesday there was a game with these two teams plus Heredia for a charity event. Next game is for real, and people go crazy at the stadium, sometimes even violent.